Editing Lombards (section)

==Culture==
===Language===
{{Main|Lombardic language}}
[[File:West germanic languages c 500.png|thumb|500px|The West-Germanic languages around the sixth century CE]]
Unless [[Cimbrian language|Cimbrian]] and [[Mòcheno language|Mòcheno]] represent surviving dialects, the [[Lombardic language]] is extinct.<ref name=BKM>{{cite book|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Europe |volume=II |first= Bernd |last=Kortmann |year=2011 |place=Berlin}}</ref> It declined beginning in the seventh century, but may have been in scattered use until as late as about the year 1000. Only fragments of the language have survived, the main evidence being individual words quoted in [[Latin]] texts. In the absence of Lombardic texts, it is not possible to draw any conclusions about the language's [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] and syntax. The genetic classification of the language depends entirely on phonology. Since there is evidence that Lombardic participated in, and indeed shows some of the earliest evidence for, the [[High German consonant shift]], it is usually classified as an [[Upper German]] dialect descended from [[Elbe Germanic]].<ref>Marcello Meli, ''Le lingue germaniche'', p. 95.</ref>
[[File:Pforzen Inschrift.JPG|thumb|upright=1.35|The runic inscription from the [[Pforzen buckle]] may be the earliest written example of Lombardic language]]

Lombardic fragments are preserved in [[rune|runic]] inscriptions. Primary source texts include short inscriptions in the [[Elder Futhark]], among them the "bronze capsule of [[Schretzheim]]" (c. 600) and the silver belt buckle found in [[Pforzen]], [[Ostallgäu]] ([[Schwaben]]). A number of Latin texts include Lombardic names, and Lombardic legal texts contain terms taken from the legal vocabulary of the vernacular. In 2005, Emilia Denčeva argued that the inscription of the [[Pernik sword]] may be Lombardic.<ref>Emilia Denčeva (2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20110206095949/http://germanistik.gradina.net/wp-content/blogs/16/uploads/Grosse.Schwert.pdf "Langobardische (?) Inschrift auf einem Schwert aus dem 8. Jahrhundert in bulgarischem Boden"] (PDF). ''[[Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur]]''. '''128''' (1): 1–11. {{doi|10.1515/BGSL.2006.1}}</ref>

The Italian language preserves a large number of Lombardic words, although it is not always easy to distinguish them from other Germanic borrowings such as those from [[Gothic language|Gothic]] or from [[Frankish language|Frankish]]. They often bear some resemblance to English words, as Lombardic was akin to [[Old Saxon]].{{sfn|Hutterer|1999|page=339}} For instance, ''landa'' from ''land'', ''guardia'' from ''wardan'' (warden), ''guerra'' from ''werra'' (war), ''ricco'' from ''rikki'' (rich), and ''guadare'' from ''wadjan'' (to wade).

The ''Codice diplomatico longobardo'', a collection of legal documents, makes reference to many Lombardic terms, some of them still in use in the Italian language:

''barba'' (beard), ''marchio'' (mark), ''maniscalco'' (blacksmith), ''aia'' (courtyard), ''braida'' (suburban meadow), ''borgo'' (burg, village), ''fara'' (fundamental unity of Lombard social and military organization, presently used as toponym), ''picco'' (peak, mountain top, also used as toponym), ''sala'' (hall, room, also used as toponym), ''staffa'' (stirrup), ''stalla'' (stable), ''sculdascio'', ''faida'' (feud), ''manigoldo'' (scoundrel), ''sgherro'' (henchman); ''fanone'' (baleen), ''stamberga'' (hovel); ''anca'' (hip), ''guancia'' (cheek), ''nocca'' (knuckle), ''schiena'' (back); ''gazza'' (magpie), ''martora'' (marten); ''gualdo'' (wood, presently used as toponym), ''pozza'' (pool); verbs like ''bussare'' (to knock), ''piluccare'' (to peck), ''russare'' (to snore).

===Social structure===

====Migration Period society====
During their stay at the mouth of the Elbe, the Lombards came into contact with other western Germanic populations, such as the Saxons and the [[Frisians]]. From these populations, which had long been in contact with the [[Celts]] (especially the Saxons), they adopted a rigid social organization into castes, rarely present in other Germanic peoples.<ref>{{harvnb|Cardini|2019|p=82}}</ref>

The Lombard kings can be traced back as early as c. 380 and thus to the beginning of the [[Migration Period|Great Migration]]. Kingship developed among the Germanic peoples when the unity of a single military command was found necessary. Schmidt believed that the Germanic tribes were divided into [[canton (country subdivision)|cantons]] and that the earliest government was a general assembly that selected canton chiefs and war leaders in times of conflict. All such figures were probably selected from a caste of nobility. As a result of the wars of their wanderings, royal power developed such that the king became the representative of the people, but the influence of the people on the government did not fully disappear.<ref>{{harvnb|Schmidt|2018|pp=76–77}}</ref> Paul the Deacon gives an account of the Lombard tribal structure during the migration:
<blockquote>
... in order that they might increase the number of their warriors, [the Lombards] confer liberty upon many whom they deliver from the yoke of bondage, and that the freedom of these may be regarded as established, they confirm it in their accustomed way by an arrow, uttering certain words of their country in confirmation of the fact.
</blockquote>
Complete emancipation appears to have been granted only among the Franks and the Lombards.<ref>{{harvnb|Schmidt|2018|p=47}}</ref>

====Society of the Catholic kingdom====
{{See also|Duke (Lombard)}}
Lombard society was divided into classes comparable to those found in the other Germanic successor states of Rome, [[Frankish Empire|Frankish Gaul]] and [[Hispania|Spain]] under the [[Visigoths]]. There was a noble class, a class of free persons beneath them, a class of unfree non-slaves (serfs), and finally slaves. The aristocracy itself was poorer, more urbanised, and less landed than elsewhere. Aside from the richest and most powerful of the dukes and the king himself, Lombard noblemen tended to live in cities (unlike their Frankish counterparts) and hold little more than twice as much in land as the merchant class (a far cry from provincial Frankish aristocrats who held vast swathes of land, hundreds of times larger than those beneath his status). The aristocracy by the eighth century was highly dependent on the king for means of income related especially to judicial duties: many Lombard nobles are referred to in contemporary documents as ''iudices'' (judges) even when their offices had important military and legislative functions as well.

The freemen of the Lombard kingdom were far more numerous than in Frankish lands, especially in the eighth century, when they are almost invisible in surviving documentary evidence. Smallholders, owner-cultivators, and rentiers are the most numerous types of person in surviving diplomata for the Lombard kingdom. They may have owned more than half of the land in Lombard Italy. The freemen were ''exercitales'' and ''viri devoti'', that is, soldiers and "devoted men" (a military term like "retainers"); they formed the [[Conscription#Medieval levies|levy]] of the Lombard army, and they were sometimes, if infrequently, called to serve, though this seems not to have been their preference. The small landed class, however, lacked the political influence necessary with the king (and the dukes) to control the politics and legislation of the kingdom. The aristocracy was more thoroughly powerful politically if not economically in Italy than in contemporary Gaul and Spain.
[[File:BRONZETTO.jpg|thumb|Lombard warrior, bronze statue, eighth century, [[Pavia Civic Museums]]]]

The urbanisation of Lombard Italy was characterised by the {{lang|it|città ad isole}} (or "city as islands"). It appears from archaeology that the great cities of Lombard Italy—[[Pavia]], [[Lucca]], [[Siena]], [[Arezzo]], [[Milan]]—were themselves formed of small urban cores within the old Roman city walls. The cities of the Roman Empire had been partially destroyed in the series of wars of the fifth and sixth centuries. Many sectors were left in ruins and ancient monuments became fields of grass used as pastures for animals, thus the [[Roman Forum]] became the ''Campo Vaccino'', the field of cows. The portions of the cities that remained intact were small, modest, contained a cathedral or major church (often sumptuously decorated), and a few public buildings and townhouses of the aristocracy. Few buildings of importance were stone, most were wood. In the end, the inhabited parts of the cities were separated from one another by stretches of pasture even within the city walls.

====Lombard states====
* Lombard state on the Carpathians (sixth century)
* Lombard state in Pannonia (sixth century)
* [[Kingdom of Italy (Lombard)|Kingdom of Italy]] and [[List of kings of the Lombards]]
* [[Principality of Benevento]] and [[List of dukes and princes of Benevento]]
* [[Principality of Salerno]] and [[List of princes of Salerno]]
* [[Principality of Capua]] and [[List of princes of Capua]]

===Religious history===

The legend from Origo may hint that initially, before the passage from Scandinavia to the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, the Lombards worshiped the [[Vanir]]. Later, in contact with other Germanic populations, they adopted the worship of the [[Æsir]]: an evolution that marked the passage from the adoration of deities related to fertility and the earth to the cult of warlike gods.<ref>{{harvnb|Rovagnati|2003|p=99}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Karl |last=Hauk |title=Lebensnormen und Kultmythen in germanischen Sammes- und Herrscher genealogien |language=de |trans-title=Norms of life and cult myths in Germanic collection and ruler genealogies}}</ref>

In chapter 40 of his ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'', Roman historian [[Tacitus]], discussing the Suebian tribes of Germania, writes that the Lombards were one of the Suebian tribes united in worship of the deity Nerthus, who is often identified with the [[Norse mythology|Norse]] goddess [[Freyja]]. The other tribes were the [[Reudigni]], [[Aviones]], [[Anglii]], [[Varini]], [[Eudoses]], [[Suarines]] and [[Nuitones]].<ref>Tacitus', ''Germania'', [[wikisource:Germania#XL|40]], Medieval Source Book. Code and format by Northvegr.[http://www.northvegr.org/lore/tacitus/009.php] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080404105305/http://www.northvegr.org/lore/tacitus/009.php|date=2008-04-04}}</ref>

[[Barbatus of Benevento|St. Barbatus]] of [[Benevento]] observed many pagan rituals and traditions among the Lombards authorised by the [[Romuald I of Benevento|Duke Romuald]], son of [[Grimoald, King of the Lombards|King Grimoald]]:<ref name=RAB>{{cite book|title=The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints: Vol. I |first=Alban |last=Rev. Butler |year=1866 |place=London}}</ref>

{{blockquote|They expressed a religious veneration to a golden viper, and prostrated themselves before it: they paid also a superstitious honour to a tree, on which they hung the skin of a wild beast, and these ceremonies were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a mark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulder.}}

====Christianisation====
The Lombards first adopted Christianity while still in Pannonia, but their conversion and Christianisation was largely nominal and far from complete. During the reign of [[Wacho]], they were Orthodox Catholics allied with the [[Byzantine Empire]], but [[Alboin]] converted to [[Arianism]] as an ally of the [[Ostrogoths]] and invaded Italy. All these Christian conversions primarily affected the aristocracy, while the common people remained pagan.<ref name="Jarnut 2002 51">{{harvnb|Jarnut|2002|p=51}}</ref>

In Italy, the Lombards were intensively Christianised, and the pressure to convert to Orthodox Catholicism was great. With the [[Baiuvarii|Bavarian]] queen [[Theodelinda]], an Orthodox Catholic, the monarchy was brought under heavy Catholic influence. After initial support for the anti-Rome party in the [[Schism of the Three Chapters]], Theodelinda remained a close contact and supporter of [[Pope Gregory I]].<ref name="Jarnut 2002 51"/> In 603, [[Adaloald]], the heir to the throne, received Orthodox Catholic baptism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Waitz |first=Georg |title=Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI–IX |date=1964 |publisher=Hahn |location=Hannover |pages=12–219}}</ref> However, the lack of spiritual involvement of most of the Lombards in religious disputes remained constant, so much so that the opposition between Orthodox Catholics, on the one hand, and pagans, Arians and schismatics, on the other, soon took on political significance. The supporters of Roman orthodoxy, led by the [[Bavarian dynasty]], were politically the proponents of greater integration with the Romans, accompanied by a strategy of preserving the status quo with the Byzantines. Arians, pagans and schismatics, rooted above all in the northeastern regions of the kingdom ([[Austria (Lombard)|Austria]]), were instead interpreters of the preservation of the warlike and aggressive spirit of the people. Thus, to the "pro-Catholic" phase of [[Agilulf]], Theodolinda and Adaloald followed, from 626 ([[Arioald]]'s accession to the throne) to 690 (definitive defeat of the rebel [[Alahis]]), a long phase of the revival of Arianism, embodied by militarily aggressive kings like [[Rothari]] and [[Grimoald, King of the Lombards|Grimoald]]. However, tolerance towards Orthodox Catholics was never questioned by the various kings, also safeguarded by the influential contribution of the respective queens (largely chosen, for reasons of dynastic legitimacy, among the Orthodox Catholic princesses of the Bavarian dynasty).<ref>{{harvnb|Jarnut|2002|pp=61–62}}</ref>

In the seventh century, the nominally Christian aristocracy of Benevento was still practising pagan rituals such as sacrifices in "sacred" woods.<ref>{{harvnb|Rovagnati|2003|p=101}}</ref> By the end of the reign of [[Cunipert|Cunincpert]], however, the Lombards were more or less completely Catholicised. Under [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|Liutprand]] Orthodox Catholicism became tangible as the king sought to justify his title ''rex totius Italiae'' by uniting the south of the peninsula with the north, thereby bringing together his Italo-Roman and Germanic subjects into one Catholic State.<ref>{{harvnb|Rovagnati|2003|p=64}}</ref>

====Beneventan Christianity====
[[File:Beneventan.jpeg|thumb|The [[Rule of Saint Benedict]] in Beneventan (i.e. Lombard) script]]

The Duchy and eventually Principality of Benevento in southern Italy developed a unique Christian [[Christian liturgy|rite]] in the seventh and eighth centuries. The Beneventan rite is more closely related to the liturgy of the [[Ambrosian rite]] than to the [[Roman rite]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Approfondimenti – Il canto beneventano – Scuola di Canto Gregoriano |url=https://www.scuoladicantogregoriano.it/ |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=www.scuoladicantogregoriano.it}}</ref> The Beneventan rite has not survived in its complete form, although most of the principal feasts and several feasts of local significance are extant. The Beneventan rite appears to have been less complete, less systematic, and more liturgically flexible than the Roman rite.

Characteristic of this rite was the [[Beneventan chant]], a Lombard-influenced<ref name=":0"/> chant that bore similarities to the [[Ambrosian chant]] of Milan. The Beneventan chant is largely defined by its role in the liturgy of the Beneventan rite; many Beneventan chants were assigned multiple roles when inserted into Gregorian chantbooks, appearing variously as antiphons, offertories, and communions, for example. It was eventually supplanted by the [[Gregorian chant]] in the eleventh century.

The chief centre of the Beneventan chant was [[Montecassino]], one of the first and greatest abbeys of [[Western monasticism]]. [[Gisulf II of Benevento]] had donated a large swathe of land to Montecassino in 744, and that became the basis for an important state, the ''[[Terra Sancti Benedicti]]'', which was a subject only to Rome. The Cassinese influence on Christianity in southern Italy was immense.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Montecassino nell'Enciclopedia Treccani |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/montecassino |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=www.treccani.it |language=it-IT}}</ref> Montecassino was also the starting point for another characteristic of Beneventan monasticism, the use of the distinct [[Beneventan script]], a clear, angular script derived from the [[Roman cursive]] as used by the Lombards.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-02-20 |title=Rivive dopo mille anni uno scriptorium di Scrittura Beneventana, Benevento Longobarda affila le 'penne' |url=https://beneventolongobarda.it/rivive-dopo-mille-anni-uno-scriptorium-di-scrittura-beneventana-benevento-longobarda-affila-le-penne/ |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=Benevento Longobarda |language=it-IT}}</ref>

===Art===
During their nomadic phase, the Lombards primarily created art that was easily carried with them, like arms and jewellery. Though relatively little of this has survived, it bears resemblance to the similar endeavours of other Germanic tribes of central Europe from the same era.

The first major modifications to the Germanic style of the Lombards came in Pannonia and especially in Italy, under the influence of local, [[Byzantine art and architecture|Byzantine]], and [[early Christian art and architecture|Christian]] styles. The conversions from nomadism and paganism to settlement and Christianity also opened up new arenas of artistic expressions, such as architecture (especially churches) and its accompanying decorative arts (such as frescoes).
<gallery>
Langobard Shield Boss 7th Century.jpg|Lombard [[shield boss]]<br>northern Italy, seventh century, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Langobardic - Fibula - Walters 542440.jpg|Lombard [[Fibula (brooch)|S-shaped fibula]]
Arte longobarda, da sutri, bicchiere a forma di corno, fine VI-inizio VII sec.JPG|A glass [[drinking horn]] from Castel Trosino
Langobardic - Shroud Cross - Walters 571773.jpg|Lombard ''Goldblattkreuz''
Cividale fibula1.jpg|Lombard [[Fibula (brooch)|fibulae]]
Cividale Ratchis1.JPG|Altar of [[Ratchis]]
Cividale Tempietto Longobardo - Westwand Märtyrerinnen 1.jpg|Eighth-century Lombard sculpture depicting female martyrs, based on a Byzantine model. ''Tempietto Longobardo'', [[Cividale del Friuli]]
Interno della cripta.jpg|[[Crypt of Sant'Eusebio]], [[Pavia]].
</gallery>

====Architecture====
{{main|Lombard architecture|Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568-774 A.D.)}}
[[File:Chiesa di santa sofia, benevento.jpg|thumb|Church of [[Santa Sofia, Benevento]]|alt=Chiesa di santa sofia, benevento.jpg]]

Few Lombard buildings have survived. Most have been lost, rebuilt, or renovated at some point, so they preserve little of their original Lombard structure. Lombard architecture was well-studied in the twentieth century, and the four-volume ''Lombard Architecture'' (1919) by [[Arthur Kingsley Porter]] is a "monument of illustrated history".

The small [[Oratorio di Santa Maria in Valle]] in [[Cividale del Friuli]] is probably one of the oldest preserved examples of Lombard architecture, as Cividale was the first Lombard city in Italy. Parts of Lombard constructions have been preserved in [[Pavia]] ([[San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro]], [[crypt of Sant'Eusebio|crypts of Sant'Eusebio]] and San Giovanni Domnarum) and [[Monza]] ([[Cathedral of Monza|cathedral]]). The ''Basilic autariana'' in [[Fara Gera d'Adda]] near [[Bergamo]] and the church of San Salvatore in [[Brescia]] also have Lombard elements. All these buildings are in northern Italy (Langobardia major), but by far the best-preserved Lombard structure is in southern Italy (Langobardia minor). The [[Santa Sofia, Benevento|Church of Santa Sofia]] in [[Benevento]] was erected in 760 by [[Arechis II of Benevento|Duke Arechis II]], and it preserves Lombard frescoes on the walls and even Lombard capitals on the columns.

Lombard architecture flourished under the impulse provided by the Catholic monarchs like [[Theodelinda]], [[Liutprand the Lombard|Liutprand]], and [[Desiderius]] to the foundation of monasteries to further their political control. [[Bobbio Abbey]] was founded during this time.

Some of the late Lombard structures of the ninth and tenth centuries have been found to contain elements of style associated with [[Romanesque architecture]] and so have been dubbed "[[first Romanesque]]". These edifices are considered, along with some similar buildings in [[southern France]] and [[Catalonia]], to mark a transitory phase between the [[Pre-Romanesque art and architecture|Pre-Romanesque]] and full-fledged Romanesque.